Eating muscovy ducks?

[kuntrygirl]

They were going between $10-$15 per bird. I know that doesn't sound like that much, but if you have to buy several at once it adds up quick.

 

And that is per live bird? If so, that is about right. That is what I sell my ducks for. No less than $10.00 and usually $15.00. Feed costs. A duck in the grocery store is about $20.00 - $25.00 in my area. I NEVER sell the girls but will let the drakes go for that price. And yes it does add up if you have to buy that many and it certainly adds up if you are selling that many. (CHA CHING)

 

[cutechick2010]

And that is per live bird? If so, that is about right. That is what I sell my ducks for. No less than $10.00 and usually $15.00. Feed costs. A duck in the grocery store is about $20.00 - $25.00 in my area. I NEVER sell the girls but will let the drakes go for that price. And yes it does add up if you have to buy that many and it certainly adds up if you are selling that many. (CHA CHING)

LOL Yeah, next time I will have to just bite the bullet and bid! I was very limited on $$ this trip though and I wanted some of the guineas too. Decisions are hard!!

 

[cutechick2010]

BTW, can anyone tell me, do Muscovy drakes get that curled tail feather like other breeds of duck do? I know the drakes are larger and get more of the red stuff on their faces (can't think of the word for it) than the hens do, but I have a hard time telling them apart when they aren't full grown yet.

 

[kuntrygirl]

And that is per live bird? If so, that is about right. That is what I sell my ducks for. No less than $10.00 and usually $15.00. Feed costs. A duck in the grocery store is about $20.00 - $25.00 in my area. I NEVER sell the girls but will let the drakes go for that price. And yes it does add up if you have to buy that many and it certainly adds up if you are selling that many. (CHA CHING)

LOL Yeah, next time I will have to just bite the bullet and bid! I was very limited on $$ this trip though and I wanted some of the guineas too. Decisions are hard!!

If you can save up enough to buy you about 3 hens and 1 drake, you will be in heaven. If you lived close to me, I would give you some. My girls hatch out about 150 - 200 each year.

 

[kuntrygirl]

BTW, can anyone tell me, do Muscovy drakes get that curled tail feather like other breeds of duck do? I know the drakes are larger and get more of the red stuff on their faces (can't think of the word for it) than the hens do, but I have a hard time telling them apart when they aren't full grown yet.

I have never had any of my drakes to get the curled tail feather. :/ Yes, the males have caruncles (red stuff on their faces).

 

[kuntrygirl]

I processed a young muscovy drake this weekend. He was under a year old. Here area few pics.

I started by pulling some of the down so that I could slice a break in the skin to begin skinning it. When I started I was afraid because I saw some fat right under that first slice but the more I skinned, it was ok. The liver was HUMONGOUS.

This is it after it was skinned. Before skinning it, the weight was 9.32 lbs. After skinning, it weighed 6.02 lbs.

Here are pics of the skin. The last pic is the full skin without the meat, of course. It was a perfect shell. Good enough to take to the taxidermy. I really enjoy skinning. It takes me 45 minutes to an hour to do 1 because I like to take my time and do a good job. He will go in the freezer for a duck gumbo.

 

[cutechick2010]

Wow yeah, that meat really does look a lot darker than my chickens, that's for sure. I am impressed with your skinning, I am not nearly patient enough for that! Or skilled enough, LOL.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Wow yeah, that meat really does look a lot darker than my chickens, that's for sure. I am impressed with your skinning, I am not nearly patient enough for that! Or skilled enough, LOL.

 

Yes, it is darker. Thanks but I am still in the learning stages. I'm sure once you start skinning, the patience will come. I was born with ZERO patience but when it comes to plucking and skinning, I really enjoy it. I get deep off into it. LOL It's kinda like painting something on canvas. I can sit there for hours and skin. I wanted the perfect skin/feathers/shell. I wish I could have stuffed it and hung it on the wall.

 

[syount]

I processed 10 Muscovies this weekend. They were 8.5-9.5 weeks old. The drakes had a processed weight of about 6.5 lbs and and hens were closer to 4.0. We have a Featherman plucker and scalding tank. We also waxed the bids to get pin feathers off. We did the ducks at the end of a day where we also did 20 Freedom Rangers. The scalding time on the ducks was about 4x as long to get feathers off as compared to the chickens. The wax was a complete mess. I'll be scraping wax for weeks. In the end the bids came out mostly clean and only needed a couple pin feathers pulled by hand at the end. This was my first attempt processing Muscovies. I hope they are tasty--We'll try the first one this weekend. At this point, I'm not sure I ever want to do it again--chickens were so much easier. I was reminded of the phrase "Duck is a 4 letter word". Happy to answer any questions.

 

[cutechick2010]

I processed 10 Muscovies this weekend. They were 8.5-9.5 weeks old. The drakes had a processed weight of about 6.5 lbs and and hens were closer to 4.0. We have a Featherman plucker and scalding tank. We also waxed the bids to get pin feathers off. We did the ducks at the end of a day where we also did 20 Freedom Rangers. The scalding time on the ducks was about 4x as long to get feathers off as compared to the chickens. The wax was a complete mess. I'll be scraping wax for weeks. In the end the bids came out mostly clean and only needed a couple pin feathers pulled by hand at the end. This was my first attempt processing Muscovies. I hope they are tasty--We'll try the first one this weekend. At this point, I'm not sure I ever want to do it again--chickens were so much easier. I was reminded of the phrase "Duck is a 4 letter word". Happy to answer any questions.

Are you saving the feathers for something? I ask because I never pluck my chickens, I always skin them. I tried plucking once and said NEVER again! LOL